ARTICULATED lorries must take turns to pass one at a time over the narrow steel bridge spanning the Sumapaz river in the town of Melgar, south-west of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. The bridge carries the main road from the Pacific port of Buenaventura to central and northern Colombia. Transporters loaded with Great Wall pickups coming from China cross paths with coking coal on its way to the United States, Peru and Mexico. This bottleneck will be eased later this month, when a 4.5km (2.8-mile) dual-carriageway bypass with wider bridges will open.

But across the country the “monumental backwardness” of Colombia’s transport network—as Juan Martín, president of the Colombian Infrastructure Chamber, puts it—is perhaps the biggest obstacle to economic growth.

Florida-based Continental Fresh is beginning its heaviest time of the year for mango supplies, and Managing Partner Albert Perez expects 2011 to be a carbon copy of 2010.

“Right now, we are importing 100 percent of our mangos from Brazil,” he said on Tuesday, Sept. 6. “That is our biggest program. At this point, it looks very similar to last year [in terms of volume]. We expanded our program with one grower and added a new label.” But he also said that overall volume should remain about the same for the firm, which operates from Coconut Grove, FL, because Continental Fresh is no longer working with one of last year’s growers.

“Suemi” and “Fino Fruits” are the two Brazil mango brands that Continental will represent this year.

“‘Suemi’ is the label that we have expanded since last year. It has developed very well over the last several year…

Coast Tropical Executive expects good marketing situation for South American deal By Tim Linden | September 01, 2011

Mango sales veteran Isabel Freeland, vice president of San Diego-based Coast Tropical, believes that things are lining up very well for a very strong South America mango deal this year.

“Ecuador is a little bit late, which should help Brazil. And we are expecting Peru to be as much as three weeks late, which will help Ecuador,” she said. “Each of those counties will have a little larger window to market their fruit this year, which should help growers in all three countries.”

Coast Tropical shifted its production from Mexico to Brazil in September, and expects Brazil fruit through the end of October. “So far the volume has been very good,” she said on Monday, September 12. “The quality is superb ... better than last year. We should see a steady flow of volume of gorgeous, red mangos ... through October.”

Mangoes sold at a mango festival in South Florida include these Puerto Rican mangoes. (Lisa Matuska / Marketplace)

KAI RYSSDAL: There's news of a tentative deal here in Southern California that's going to avoid a strike at three major supermarket chains. It'll keep more 60,000 workers on the job and stores open. Next time you happen to be in a grocery store, take a swing by the produce section. Find the mangoes, give one a squeeze, take it home if you so choose, and ask yourself this: mangos, have they always been here?

Lisa Matuska has more.

LISA MATUSKA: Let's start with the banana. In the early 1900s, the United Fruit Company transformed the banana. The company, now known as Chiquita, managed to turn this exotic yellow fruit into an international commodity with the help of railroads,…

Small-scale farmers contribute significantly to Kenya’s mango production, but these growers suffer huge post-harvest losses that eat up to 45 per cent of the harvested fruit because the crop is highly perishable. File

"Federal and state health officials have certainly studied this food safety measure (irradiation), and they emphasize that outbreaks of this nature will continue to occur until we employ food irradiation as a final safeguard."

"The United States and Pakistan have worked closely to open this new market to mango growers in Pakistan and make additional choices available to U.S. consumers. Irradiation treatments allow USDA to facilitate the safe importation of mangoes from Pakistan while protecting U.S. agriculture from harmful pests and diseases."

But many of the company's partners aren't localUS: Chiquita relocation would ripple

The global nature of Chiquita's business means it doesn't use too many local marketing, branding or research firms. Most affected by a move would be the lawyers, accountants, auditors, caterers, hotels and dry cleaners that support a large corporation, and the universities that fill a firm's pipeline of talent. News sources in Charlotte and Boca Raton, Fla., have reported offerings of state, county and city tax incentives to lure the international marketer of fruits and vegetables. The city of Cincinnati also has an offer on the table, which officials say is larger than the Charlotte deal. It includes possible solutions to Chiquita's two biggest complaints - poor flight service from the Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky International Airport and the lack of a bilingual workforce, Councilman Chris Bortz says.

Cordes, however, said last week that he is confident he can extend his contract and said his moves to reorganise Metro were not yet complete. And, in a further twist, over the weekend it was reported in Germany that a second key shareholder in Metro, the Schmidt-Ruthenbeck family, wants Cordes to stay.

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Roger Myerson, a Nobel laureate and a professor at the University of Chicago, discusses the outlook for the U.S. economy, the euro-region's sovereign debt crisis and the challenges facing Libya. He speaks with David Tweed in Lindau, Germany, on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." (Source: Bloomberg)

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics LLC, talks about Federal Reserve monetary policy and prospects for adoption of an explicit inflation target by the central bank. Ryding, speaking with Betty Liu, Dominic Chu and Michael McKee on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop," also discusses the U.S. consumer-price index for May and the impact of monetary policy on commodity p…